by Victor Pickard “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” —Les Moonves, CEO of CBS, when discussing Trump’s candidacy Donald Trump’s ascendance has many enablers, but news media deserve special scrutiny. Television news in particular has popularized Trump—and, in doing so, has turned our political process into a reality TV spectacle. Even when … [Read more...]
Poland’s new media law is an attack on journalism and democracy
On Saturday, Poland’s President, Andrzej Duda signed a controversial law that enables the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party to appoint the directors of the country’s public TV and radio. Thanks to the new legal provisions, the Treasury minister now has the full power to hire and fire the heads of the Polish public service broadcasters, which have a healthy audience … [Read more...]
Updated: MRC’s report on press coverage of Jeremy Corbyn’s first week as Labour leader
Research on press coverage of Jeremy Corbyn's first week as Labour leader that was originally published by the Media Reform Coalition in November 2015, has been updated to include an Appendix that considers some of the key themes underpinning the coverage. Our research indicated how large sections of the press appeared to set out systematically to undermine Jeremy Corbyn with a … [Read more...]
Legislate to Change It: Draft Bill for Media Democracy, 5pm 7 December
A public meeting to discuss questions of media ownership and democracy with a presentation of The Media Reform Coalition's 'Media Plurality Draft Bill' (.pdf). Book Free Tickets here. With Jenny Jones (Green Party), Helen Goodman MP (Labour), Clive Lewis MP (Labour), Chi Onwurah MP (Labour), Dr. Justin Schlosberg (Birkbeck College), Prof. Des Freedman (Goldsmiths) & … [Read more...]
How the mainstream media became a neo-Stalinist propaganda regime for wealthy neocons
Video credit: Scenes Of Reason This exclusive investigation by Nafeez Ahmed is part of our series of posts on Media Democracy which people wrote in response to our invitation to reflect on how best to secure media democracy in the run up to our Media Democracy Festival. By Nafeez Ahmed John Pilger once wrote that journalism is the first casualty of war. In the … [Read more...]
